Mama T is in the house!

Thelma Wells' Ready to Win Blog Tour Interview
"Don't Give In...God Wants YOU to win!"
May 31-June 14, 2009

WELCOME Mama T!  Thank you for visiting Partners In Prayer for Our Prodigals!  

I’m delighted to be here today to visit with you and your readers, and share about a topic that is dear to my heart.

Thelma, you have had a successful banking and corporate career. You’ve spoken all over the country and around the world, done a lot of radio interviews, had your own television show, and written a lot of books. Many of our readers will be familiar with you from the Women of Faith conferences. It seems you’ve “done it all.” So when you left Women of Faith in February 2008, what was it that you were leaving them to do?

Actually, I really did not fully understand what I was going to do. I was simply following the very clear instructions of God that it was time to go. I had a few speaking engagements on my calendar but certainly not enough to make ends meet. My total dependence was on God and waiting to see what He had in store for me.

Your new book, Don’t Give In…God Wants YOU to Win!, is based on a real life experience. Will you tell us a little of that story?

I was in elementary school when one of my friends told people she was going to beat me up. I could not understand why but it was real. After school for two days I faced a crowd hungry to see a fight and a girl who I thought was my friend hit me and frighten me to tears. One the second day of my fighting ordeal my great grandmother who raised me gave me some strong advice, “Thelma, the only way to deal with a bully is to fight them. You better fight her tomorrow and beat her up. If not, you’re going to get a whipping when you get home. That was the determining factor. My Granny who had taught me that ladies don’t fight had just reversed the instruction to “fight the bully.”

I did fight her the third day and hit her hard, so she ran home, not me. I learned that when we are faced with the bully, the adversary, the enemy of our souls, the devil himself, the only way to win is to fight him with all the ammunition we have, the Whole Armor of God.

This book is about spiritual warfare, demons, the Holy Spirit, and some pretty heavy-duty areas. Why write on this topic?

In this day and age when all around us seems to failing like our economic system, the government, relationships, health, self-worth, business and workplace situations, the church, wayward children, divorce and so much more, it is imperative that people have something sturdy and reliable to hold on to. Everyday we are fighting some kind of battle small, great or tremendous. When we don’t know how to fight against the disappoint, heartache, confusion, depression, and all the emotional and spiritual fall out from these issues, we become desperate, violent, vicious and vile. John 10:10 tells us that the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy us. But, Jesus has come to give us life and that life more abundantly than the feelings of no hope. This book teaches about the only hope we have and how to use that hope physically, emotionally and spiritually with a guarantee that we are winners when we do.

Will you share with us the chapter titles?

Introduction: Time for Questions
Chapter One: Know How to Fight, but Never Start One
Chapter Two: Fight or Flight?
Chapter Three: Breakdown for a Blessing
Chapter Four: Weeds in the Garden 

Chapter Five: Thelma’s Untold Rituals 

Chapter Six: The Dynamic Duo
Chapter Seven: The Battle Is Not Yours

Chapter Eight: Winning Weapons 

Chapter Nine: Fix Your Hair! 

Chapter Ten: Pad Your Bra! 

Chapter Eleven: Tighten Your Girdle! 

Chapter Twelve: Put On Your Stomping Shoes! 

Something Extra: More Winning Weapons

You’ve been known as the BEE lady, but it seems you’re evolving into more than that? Where do you see your ministry heading in the future?

God has so many surprises for me that my heart is overflowing. I have a teaching and preaching anointing that has made my ministry one of integrity and worth. God is doing great things in my life and reinventing some vital things that will be seen by everybody in a few weeks. He has guaranteed me that the international travel I’ve done over the past thirty years, the seeds I’ve sown over my lifetime, the barriers and tough times I’ve overcome are about to pay off in many different ways. He has put Christian people in my life that have and are changing the course of my life in great and wonderful ways. I will be taking a group to Israel next November, on other Ready to Win tours throughout the world, working with World Vision in their child sponsorship program, presenting mini Ready To Win Conferences throughout the world, and whatever else the Lord assigns me to do.

Congratulations on your first Ready to Win Conference. We heard you had an awesome weekend in Garland, TX with a great group of speakers, musical artists, and attendees. Having done so many conferences in the past, why do another conference?

This is not just another conference. This Ready To Win Conference does not just excite people or create positive thinking, it gives everyone, saved and unsaved, the winning weapons to fight off all the wicked in this world. People are not only encouraged to win the war against the evil one, they are given easy to understand tools that they have reported are so vivid in their minds that they can apply every day in every situation. Coming together in a group and learning these tried and true skills is so much easier to understand than writing it in a book or seeing it on DVD. The reports have been that this works because they were able to see it, hear it, feel it, and use it instantly and forever. In today’s world, another conference is not what we are about. We are about people joining together from different denominations, ethnicities, geographic locations, languages, and thought systems and getting insight and instruction that can bring people of all walks of life together to become a mighty army against the forces of evil.

As a follow up, how can people get the Ready to Win Conference to their area?

People all over the world can contact me at contact us@thelmawells.com and we will get back with them with the details of how the Ready To Win Conference can come to their area.

In your book, Don’t Give In…God Wants YOU to Win!, you talk about doing rituals as it relates to fighting the good fight of faith. Will you explain that word to us and give us an example?

The word ritual is used on to denote the routines we have in our daily lives like fixing our hair, dressing ourselves, and being prepared for the day. It means nothing more than that and nothing mysterious that would attract any evil forces.
Spiritual warfare and putting on the armor of God is a daily activity for you. Is this because you’re a nationally known Christian speaker and author, or is this something that everyone should be aware of?

Spiritual warfare is the state of our lives whatever and whoever you are. We fight against anger, gluttony, smoking, frustration, and everything else that can make us less than our best. The warfare that we are in daily is because we live in a fallen world where Satan thinks he has power. Each and everyday he tries to confuse us into thinking that things are unfixable, out of control, etc. He is the greatest liar of all times and he lays tricks in our minds, if we let him. From the moment we were born until the day we die we will be fighting spiritual warfare. However, the good news is…people who have accepted Jesus as their Savior never have to fight alone. The end of the story is that Jesus and His people win and the devil is a number one loser!

Thelma, this book was released at a perfect time. So many people are struggling just to survive. They’ve lost jobs, money, health, marriages, and more. Many just want to give up! What can we do if we are in those situations to prepare for victory in the battle of life?

When you’re in a battle these are the things that must be done in order to win:

• Put on the helmet of salvation to cover your thought life. 

• Put on the breastplate of righteousness to guard your heart against devil and sin. 

• Put on the girdle of Truth so that you will be able to understand what real truth is and be able to use the Sword of the Spirit (The Word of God – the Bible) in every situation as Jesus did when He was tempted by the devil in the mountain. 

• Put on the shoes that have prepared you with the preparation of peace so you can march and stay fit as you tell other people about the goodness and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

• Hold up the shield of faith believing that God will keep every Promise He made for our good. • Pray for each other and for ourselves by asking God for what we need, seeking His perfect will in all we do and knocking continually until we know God has answered our prayers. We must realize that God does not answer all our prayers the way we want Him to but whatever way He answers them, they are for our good and for His glory. 

• Praise God with thanksgiving for all He has done and will do for us. The worship of God brings us into an atmosphere of being able to fight the good fight of faith and WIN.

Where/how does “submitting to God and the devil will flee from you” fit into spiritual warfare?

God asks us to do a simple thing, trust Him enough to give Him all of us. That’s hard to do when you try to control your life yourself. It really amounts to us (you and me) worshipping ourselves instead of worshipping God. When we live in humble submission to God, Satan will try to attack but God is our Protector. This is not a one-time submission to God. Everyday and sometimes during the day we must ask Him to lead us not into temptation and to protect us from evil because evil is always near. We are told to pray without ceasing. This means that we must stay in the attitude of prayer 24/7. It’s simple but it presents a challenge for us because we are so distracted by our day, our desires, our dreams, our relationships, etc. that we often forget that none of this would be possible were it not for the Lord who grants it. Submission means to let God be the driving force and the guiding force in our lives and trust Him that He will do exceedingly abundantly over and above what we can ask or think according to His power that works in us. The most peaceful, contented condition of my life is when I actually and earnestly turned my entire life over to the direction of God. I can now recognize when Satan tries to tempt me, confuse me, and drive me into doing or saying things I should not. It has come about with trust in God and practice of His word. Satan will attack but God will counter-act.

Most of us are familiar with the list of spiritual weapons available for us to use as listed in Ephesians 6. You have a way to remember these that might be more relevant to today’s woman – as a mom, wife, business woman, etc. Will you share these five things with us that you do daily when you’re getting “dressed” in the morning?











Thelma, it seems you are all over the Internet these days. Anyone can find you on your web site, Facebook, Twitter, web casts, a blog tour, the You Go Girl Network, and other cutting edge things with technology. Why is it important for you to use all these various methods to spread your message?

Technology is the way God planned for us to get His message to the world according to Matthew 28:19.

How did you get the name, Mama T?

A young lady in my church named me that because she thought that was a fitting name for me and it has become a loving name for the ladies in my mentoring groups.

So what’s next for the Mama T and Ready to Win?

My website (ThelmaWells.com) is being reinvented to a teaching tool for people to learn more and more about how to win the battles of life. There will be powerful tools available, I will be personally speaking with people and many other changes that will enlighten, encourage, inform, influence and empower people to fight the good fight and win.
Where can our readers buy your new book and register for the webcast?

On my web site, which is ThelmaWells.com. They can click on the July RTW On-line Web cast button to learn more or register for the next series of web casts that start on July 7. You can also watch this video to learn more…click here.

My new book, Don’t Give In – God Wants YOU To Win! is also available online and at local bookstores such as, Family Christian Stores, Lifeway Christian Stores, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble Book Stores, Mardel’s, Anchor Distributors, Christianbook.com, and many other stores and vendors throughout American and the United Kingdom.
Is there anything that we didn’t ask that you’d like to share with us?

In all we’ve said, we need to remember that Jesus loves YOU and has a plan for your life. This plan includes you living a life free from worry and anxiety. God is in control of everything. When we trust in Him, give Him our lives to guide, seek the will of the Father, ask Jesus to be the Lord and Master of our lives, and accept the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are winners and nobody or nothing can take that away from us! Thank you, darling, for having me today on your blog. I hope you and your readers will visit my web site at ThelmaWells.com. And remember always be READY TO WIN!

“FIRST FRIDAYS WITH VAL”

“Trust is a key issue in our faith. We may not trust our adult children – or even ourselves at times – but we need to trust that God is always in control. We also need to trust that He can speak to us through our parental instincts.” Allison Bottke, pg. 139, Setting Boundaries with Your Adult Children

At the conclusion of my last column, I was at the beginning of my journey of letting go and letting God. I was fearful of what the result was going to be now that we had set firm limits with our daughter – no contact with us until she apologized and until her relationship with her boyfriend was over.

A series of events have shaped a different approach towards our daughter.

I prayed so long about the boundaries and conditions which we set up in regards to our daughter. I was in such pain – missing the contact with her, knowing she still wanted a relationship with us but that we were saying “no”, thinking about the future and dreading not knowing what was going on with her in her life. I kept on going back to the conversation I had with God when my daughter was first diagnosed with lupus nephritis when she was 16. I asked him why he chose me to be her mother, out of all of the woman who could have adopted her. He said “Valerie, it is because you have what she needs to help her through this situation.” And then, in April when we found out some news about our daughter, again, I prayed to God about what to do. His reply was “She needs you now more than she ever needed you in the past.” So, when we decided to cut off all contact with her at the end of April, I felt as though I was cutting off my promise to be with her to help her through her current situation in which she has no idea how destructive it has been to her. So, I prayed to God once again, and asked him what I needed to do. His answer came in two forms – one was a dream, and the other was a direct response to my prayer.

My “parental instinct” was on high alert after we cut off contact with our daughter, and as Allison said in her quote above, we have to trust God to speak to us through those hunches or those instincts. I knew that my daughter was in deep emotional and spiritual trouble. She was and still is surrounded by negative and evil influences which are dragging her down and keeping her captive in her situation. Yes, she has choices, but I wasn’t so certain she had the power to make different choices to pull her out of that situation. I kept on getting this vision of a lifeline. One night, I had a dream that she was in the middle of swirling quicksand, being sucked deeper and deeper into the suffocating quagmire, and surrounding her where the people with whom she is now living. They weren’t helping her at all. I was yelling at them to help her, but they wouldn’t listen to me. I found a lifeline to throw to her – but she refused to grasp it and hold on to it for dear life. She was refusing my help to save her life – which is exactly what she is doing right now. But, later on after I woke up, I realized that she has to WANT to be saved, and until then, there is nothing I can do about it.

Knowing that she is surrounded by the negative and evil influences, and knowing that she is refusing to be helped, made me realize that she desperately needed a guiding light. As not only her mother, but also her spiritual mother, it was my obligation to provide that light to her. She still needs the option of grabbling onto that lifeline if she so wants to someday – so I couldn’t take that lifeline away from her. God nudged me by letting me know that I was to stay in the background of her life – just as a gentle presence who was ever-ready, so that when the day comes that she needs me, she knows I will welcome her with open arms. God asked me to forgive her, and to be that lifeline to her, despite how angry and hurt I was. God told me she needed me so much right now, even though she won’t admit it, and that I needed to be her “watchman” (as Diane likes to put it) until the day comes she wants to come home to us and to her Lord. And, He reminded me that I must yield everything to the Lord. In Allison’s book on page 148, I was reminded of Paul’s admonishment in the letter to the Ephesians “to be alert and persistent and to put on the armor of God.” So, my job now has become to be that lifeline and guiding light to my daughter, shielded by the armor of God.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:10-18) (pg 148, Allison Bottke, Setting Boundaries with Your Adult Children.)

I couldn’t abandon my daughter in the time of her greatest need. I fought for her physical life when she was so gravely ill; now I had to fight even harder for her spiritual life when she is under the attack of so much evil influence. So, I decided to speak with my daughter to let her know that yes, I did want a relationship with her, but it had to be qualified by certain boundaries. There was to be no more lying on her part. She knows my opinion and stance about her relationship with her boyfriend, and we were at a standstill over that one, so we would just have to agree to disagree about it. However, that did not mean that I approved or condoned the relationship, and it did still mean that I would be praying for her eventual return home to us and to her Lord – and without the boyfriend. She knows she is welcome back home at anytime without him in her life. But, in the meantime, I will stand here, waiting for her return, and offering her my love and comfort and support and prayers, to stand up against all of the negative influences in her life in hopes that she will eventually grab my lifeline and turn away from the grips of evil. My prayer is that God will give her the strength and courage to get away from these unhealthy relationships (physically, emotionally, and spiritually), and back on the path again towards a life that is filled with love and peace and stability and God’s promises. Please pray that I may remain her beacon of light, her lifeline, and her spiritual warrior.

~Valerie Wolff, June 2009

Value in Weakness

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong,”

2 Corinthians 12:9b,10

Value in Weakness

Can I be real for just a moment? No theological dissertation, no philosophical meanderings…just a heart to heart talk? Woodridge Community Care, of which I am a part, does not have a grand mission statement; our intent is simple—to care for those within our community who are hurting. However, we live in a society that frowns on weaknesses and sharing them sometimes comes at a cost. Consequently, our nature is to hide our frailties behind a mask of strength and perfection. While many people are willing to share spectacular spiritual experiences (like the super apostles v.11), still today, most find it difficult to share their weaknesses. Yet, in 2 Corinthians 12, we learn that it is within our weakness that we see God’s strength.

I have a Christian friend who is a survivor of childhood abuse. She worked diligently for years in an effort to heal from unthinkable abuse and victimization. Some time ago, suffering from the exhaustion of her recovery work, she fell on her knees before God and pleaded for him to heal her, to take this terrible burden from her--to remove the painful emotional scars that remained. If my friend were personally sharing this testimony with you, she would joyfully smile as she told you of God‘s reply, “Roseanne, I have healed you through and through…I left the scars so others would recognize you.” Today, Roseanne proclaims the healing power of God’s love to women in prison. These hardened hearts respond to her witness because they recognize her emotional scars. If Roseanne chose to hide her weakness…these women would never see God’s strength. I believe that if you asked her, Roseanne would agree with Paul when he proclaimed, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong,” (vv. 9,10).

How motivating is that? All we have to do is allow God to do a spiritual work with our human experience. Not only will others see His power, but our weakness will be made strong. Hmmm….That’s real value!

Reflections

Is there an experience of pain that God is calling you to share with others? What is stopping you from “boasting” of your weakness so others may see God’s strength? Seek his will, listen as he directs you. Memorize 2 Corinthians 12:9a, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Begin today…give supernatural value to your pain, help someone else see Jesus.

Originally published in LifeLine Devotionals, 2005

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Look who came out to play!

Just for fun!

Have a blissful Monday!

What do you feel when you see this photo? I see love! Taken at the San Diego Zoo; older gentlemen was there for physical therapy. I stood and watched this scene for at least 10 minutes before I took this photo. Amazing!